CHARACTER ASSASSINATION

Family: Warrant Part of Smear Campaign Against Botham Jean

“It took being murdered by a Dallas police officer for Botham Jean to suddenly become a criminal.”

The family of a 26-year-old Dallas man killed last week by an off-duty cop who’d mistakenly entered his apartment says police are trying to smear the dead man's character. The accusation comes in response to a search warrant made public by the Dallas Police Department on Thursday that claims 10.4 grams of marijuana was found inside Botham Jean’s apartment after he was fatally shot by officer Amber Guyger. Allison Jean, Botham Jean’s mother, said Friday that the warrant shows police officers went into his home the night of his death in search of drugs so that they could undermine his reputation. “The Dallas Police Department investigators were interested specifically in finding information that could help assassinate his character,” the family’s lawyer, Lee Merritt, told reporters. “Twenty-six years on this earth he lived his life without a blemish. It took being murdered by a Dallas police officer for Botham Jean to suddenly become a criminal,” Merritt said. Guyger has been charged with manslaughter after fatally shooting Jean, which she says happened because she believed he was an intruder after mistaking his apartment for her own. Jean's family has cast doubt on the official version of events, saying witnesses at the scene heard Guyger pounding on the apartment door before shots were fired and a woman’s voice shouting, “Let me in!” The Texas Rangers are currently investigating the matter.